Grill & Shabu Shabu Restaurant

New eatery in town, the first of its kind in town, they claim. Steamboat and grill, eat all you can. Boil and grill all you want. Shabu shabu in Japanese is supposed to mean hotpot.... in this language - steamboat. This restaurant and Red Thai Village Restaurant at Jalan Stadium have the same owner.

This is the restaurant. It is located near Tesco. Can't miss it cos it's just next to the main road. And it's signboard is really colourful.

But their flyer says it's 'nearly' Tesco. English is atrocious these days and many ads contain silly and funny errors. Anyway, they have a promotion on now.... 4 get 1 free. There is also a special rate for student and senior citizens, for lunch I think. You need to show your IC.

The place was just filling up as we arrived. You have to pay first before you eat, like Seoul Garden. Actually it's whole concept is a bit like Seoul Garden's. They cannot accept payment by credit card yet. The girl at the counter says they'll have it soon.

The first impression was good. They have a conveyor belt system like that you find in Sakae Sushi and Sushi King. They actually tried to separate the different types of food; vegetables, seafood, meat, noodles.... But as the restaurant got busier and plates got emptied from the conveyor belt, the food all got mixed up. They should just let them all be mixed up.

Now the food.... The desserts were okay but who would want to eat curry puffs for dinner? .... well my boy did. I think he took many pieces! LOL! My kids liked the small cups of desserts which they could top up with ice creams. Drink selection is okay but we feel the ice box can easily be 'contaminated' by all the hands that dig in.

There's also a cooked food section. There weren't many choices but the braised duck wasn't too bad.

Where boiling food was concerned, you have four choices of stock. But the disappointment is in the types of food. Most were processed stuff.... They had prawns and scallops but those came out far and few. We were fortunate that we were seated near the opening where they dished out the food. We managed to hijack 8 scallops in total. 8) So it looks like seating position is very important because of that. Same goes for the prawns but we didn't take many of that cos my kids aren't such great fans of 'em.

There was a dessert bar... they had kiwi though you don't get to see many of them.

Also, we noticed that the food on the conveyor belt is not cold. How fast does food turn bad with all the steam that heats up the room, I wonder?

The place is still new but I notice that they didn't really clean our table well. Grilling food means oil get splattered everywhere. And I could see splatters of oil on the wall of the conveyor. Also, the place looked a little dusty. Maybe it's still new. They've just opened a couple of days.

As for returning there? I am not sure. I might, if friends want to go. But if you want to try this place, now is still a good time. The utensils are still new. And they are probably making an effort to give better service. It will probably do okay for now since it's still a novelty.

But it's nice to have a different sort of makan place up here in Alor Setar.